The New York Mets lost the first game of a three game series to the Colorado Rockies 6-5 in 13 innings Friday night.  The Mets have now lost five games in a row and have fallen two games under .500.  

Oliver Perez was his usual head case self, he pitched five innings, giving up four runs on six hits, eight walks, yes your read that right, eight walks and two strikeouts.  He was more the Oliver Perez we saw against the Pirates rather than the Oliver Perez we saw Sunday against the Yankees.  What is with this guy?  When he is on, his stuff is great, but you never know which Oliver Perez you are going to get.  Eight walks? 

Aaron Heilman continues to struggle.  I just don’t know what they are going to do with this guy.  It seems like every time he pitches he gives up runs.  His era is now 6.29.  In 24 1/3 innings he has given up 27 hits, 21 runs, 17 of which were earned, 13 walks, and 21 strikeouts.  Is he still thinking he can be a starter? Who knows what is going on with this guy, but things are not going to get any easier for him, especially if the Mets don’t start winning some games.  If he thinks the fans have been brutal thus far, there is still a lot of ball left to play and things will get even tougher, not only for him but for the whole team. 

It was Billy Wagner who let this one get away.  We knew it was a matter of time before he really blew one but too bad it happened when the Mets were two outs away from ending their losing streak.  Wagner worked two innings; he struggled in the ninth giving up three hits, and one run, that was the homerun to Matt Holliday which tied the game.  Wagner did work a 1-2-3 tenth inning though.   

The Mets scored five runs off ten hits.  Carlos Delgado and Fernando Tatis hit back to back homers in the sixth, in fact Delgado had two hits last night to raise his average to a whopping .222, good job Carlos, you’re hot now!  David Wright was 0-6 with three strikeouts and Carlos Beltran was 0-5 with one walk.  The heart of the order is really struggling right now; hopefully getting Ryan Church back in will help some. 

I know that Omar Minaya was in Colorado and reiterated to the press that Randolph is the manager, but how much longer can they keep him?  I am not advocating for someone to get fired, but when you are the head of a team, you are the “boss” and when your team isn’t performing, you have to take some of the blame.  Willie has lost the team.  I had the same discussion this year during football season.  My beloved Huskers struggled in a year when they were supposed to be really good and after a game in which the Huskers turned in an dreadful, uninspired performance where they were outplayed like the Mets were out played earlier this week, we knew that Bill Callahan had to go.  Bill had lost the team, he could no longer lead, and of course, ultimately he did lose his job.  How long can the Mets let this go on?  How many losses?  We’re at five and counting.  This mediocrity has gone on for a year.  We can’t overlook the good things that have happened since Willie took over; the Mets have had a winning record and they did go to the playoffs, but you also can’t overlook the disastrous ending to last season.  I don’t care what the players say, it has carried over.  Every day this goes on the Mets will fall further out of contention, they have to get this fixed before they find themselves in a hole that they can not climb out,  they have too big a payroll to be a .500 teams over 180 games. 

Ryan Church was scratched from the line up last night as he said the flight did not agree with him, he was hoping to be in the line up this afternoon.  Marlon Anderson left the game with a pulled hamstring and it looks like he will have to go on the DL. 

The Mets will send Caludio Vargas to the hill this afternoon and he will be opposed by Jeff Francis.  The game is scheduled for 3:55 start. 

Mets Blog